{"id":776,"date":"2015-05-19T21:12:30","date_gmt":"2015-05-19T21:12:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/extra\/?p=776"},"modified":"2015-08-14T23:23:53","modified_gmt":"2015-08-14T23:23:53","slug":"who-uses-baby-talk-more-moms-or-dads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/research\/who-uses-baby-talk-more-moms-or-dads\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Uses Baby Talk More &#8211; Moms or Dads?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-spokane\/uploads\/sites\/456\/2015\/05\/VanDam-Mark.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-780\" src=\"https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-spokane\/uploads\/sites\/456\/2015\/05\/VanDam-Mark-396x264.jpg\" alt=\"Mark VanDam WSU Spokane\" width=\"528\" height=\"351\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-spokane\/uploads\/sites\/456\/2015\/05\/VanDam-Mark-396x264.jpg 396w, https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-spokane\/uploads\/sites\/456\/2015\/05\/VanDam-Mark-792x527.jpg 792w, https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-spokane\/uploads\/sites\/456\/2015\/05\/VanDam-Mark-990x659.jpg 990w, https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-spokane\/uploads\/sites\/456\/2015\/05\/VanDam-Mark-1188x791.jpg 1188w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 528px) 100vw, 528px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>Mark VanDam, WSU Spokane<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Mark VanDam is a researcher in the <a href=\"http:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/admissions\/speech-hearing-sciences\/\" target=\"_blank\">Speech and Hearing Sciences Department<\/a> here at WSU Spokane. Speaking at the annual meeting of the <a href=\"http:\/\/acousticalsociety.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Acoustical Society of America<\/a>, VanDam provided a research-based answer to an interesting question:<\/p>\n<p>Who&#8217;s better at baby talk &#8211; mom or dad?<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->After studying 11 families with toddlers (kids around 2.5 years old), VanDam and his team found that moms are the ones that use baby talk whereas dads speak to their children in tones similar to those spoken in the presence of adults.<\/p>\n<p>The findings have been featured by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.seattletimes.com\/seattle-news\/science\/modern-dads-may-do-diapers-but-not-baby-talk-study-finds\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Seattle Times<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/time.com\/3883592\/baby-talk-moms\/?utm_source=about&amp;utm_medium=undefined&amp;utm_campaign=undefined&amp;utm_term=undefined&amp;utm_content=undefined\" target=\"_blank\">TIME<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>VanDam found that moms raised their pitch by 40 hertz, while dads had no significant change in pitch.<\/p>\n<p>Does this make either a better parent? Of course not.<\/p>\n<p>As the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.seattletimes.com\/seattle-news\/science\/modern-dads-may-do-diapers-but-not-baby-talk-study-finds\/\" target=\"_blank\">Times<\/a> put it:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\">Although motherese is believed to be a bonding tool, a kind of communication that\u2019s particularly engaging to young children, the fathers\u2019 style is likely equally important, [VanDam]\u00a0said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cWe think that the fathers are doing things that are conducive to their children\u2019s learning but in a different way,\u201d he said. \u201cMoms provide the link to the intimate or the domestic. Dads provide a link to the outside world.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\">Also interesting is what kinds of songs moms and dads sing to their babies. Tonya Bergeson-Dana of the <a href=\"http:\/\/medicine.iu.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\">Indiana University Medical School<\/a> and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.iupui.edu\/~babytalk\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">Babytalk Research Center<\/a> noted a different genre of music moms and dads choose to sing:<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cEven in singing to babies, moms will sing \u2018Twinkle, Twinkle,\u2019 and \u2018ABC\u2019 and dads will sing rock songs,\u201d she told the Times.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">VanDam&#8217;s conclusions are based on research, and that helps us understand the mother-child and father-child dynamic a letter better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mark VanDam, WSU Spokane Mark VanDam is a researcher in the Speech and Hearing Sciences Department here at WSU Spokane. Speaking at the annual meeting of the Acoustical Society of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":[],"featured_media":780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[437],"tags":[847,851,850,846,616,848,849,462,447],"wsuwp_university_location":[],"wsuwp_university_org":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/528"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=776"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":782,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776\/revisions\/782"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=776"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/author?post=776"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_location?post=776"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_org","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_org?post=776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}